A section of a hotel under construction at the provincial government-owned Mambukal Resort in Murcia, Negros Occidental, collapsed at about 2 a.m. yesterday but its cost will be shouldered by the contractor, Provincial Engineer Ernie Mapa said.

No one was injured, he said.

Mapa said a section of the 4-storey Mambukal Convention Center Hotel parapet collapsed and falling hollow blocks damaged the lower roof of the building.

Don’t use policemen, pols toldBY GILBERT P. BAYORAN

Politicians are being discouraged from requesting for police escorts during the election period.

Instead, they may opt to secure the services of ex-military and police personnel, who are now affiliated with private security agencies, Senior Supt. Romeo Baleros, newly-designated officer-in-charge of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, said Monday.

The Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology is looking at pushing the ranking of Bacolod in Tholons Top 100 upward, by focusing more on projects in preparing the current labor market to be more adaptive to the new trends in technology, its president, John Dave Dueñas, said.

Tholons is scoring each city in the global standing based on talent, skills and quality, business catalyst, cost, infrastructure, risk and quality of life, digital transformation, skills and scalability, operations/cost, business environment, quality of life, digital and innovation.

These criteria, Dueñas said, are present in Bacolod to be able to create 30,000 seats of employment within the city and the province and with this, BNEFIT expects to grow it to 45,000 posts of employment by inviting more locators and investors.